Guest Blogging: How Should it Be Done?
Anyone who has written a blog post knows how much time and effort it takes to develop it. No wonder some can be privy of their content and would instead publish it on their website. That is if they decide to publish it at all. But whether you decide to publish your content or not, keep in mind doing so can help your brand grow. And one way to do that is through guest blogging. The process of publishing relevant content on another website is one of the most effective marketing strategies that you can do. For one, it allows you to introduce your content to an audience outside of your website. Second, it enables you to showcase your knowledge and expertise. Third, it lets you drive referral traffic to your website. If you want to rip these benefits, let us walk you through these seven practical tips to do guest blogging properly. Know Your Goals Just like any marketing strategy, you need to know where you’re headed before going there. There are also two main questions that you need to answer: Why do you want to get into guest blogging? How many resources do you currently have, onhand? Every effective guest blogging strategy starts with knowing what your goals are. Know Your Target Audience Before jumping right in, there are a couple of things that you ought to consider. Will you be writing a blog post about a specific niche or industry? Or do you want to write a blog that most of your customers will read? Let’s say you own a marketing software that targets small business owners. You can either come up with marketing blogs online or pitch to small business blogs out there. Find the Right Website Try to focus on topics that resonate with your audience. From there, seek out blogs, sites, and publishers who dedicated their time to these topics. Ideally, it would be best to look for sites that genuinely talk and cover topics that your audience will most probably read. There are several ways you can look for sites and publishers: Ask your target audience where they get online information. Ask your paid search or media team where they advertise and which particular domain gets quality traffic. Look for sites that rank well for informational queries, which are often related to your products and services. Utilize Ahref’s Content Explorer to look up authors and publishers who write about your topic. Then, sort out which ones get the highest traffic to look up for the best opportunities. Note that none of these usually use automation or scraping, as these are seen as quite deliberate. You can do manual research to search for blogs as these are traditionally one of the best ways to be relevant in what you do. Build Your Network Guest posting allows you to build your network and relationship with other website owners within your niche. That’s because you need to scour the internet for websites that cater to the same audience as yours. You also need to reach out to the content editor or website owner and ask if they accept guest posts. That said, do not take it personally, should someone said no to you. It can be because they are not accepting guest posts at the moment, or you are reaching out to the wrong website. But other than that, building a list of relevant websites that accepts guest posting can be straightforward. And they are likely to accept your offer because they are getting new content for free. Meanwhile, you get to expand your audience reach. In our opinion, the key to a successful guest post outreach is ensuring that you are pitching a relevant content idea. When we say “relevant,” it means a content idea that will resonate with their audience but is angled to your brand. Craft a Good Pitch The next thing that you need to do is to pitch your article. Before crafting your pitch, there are some things that you need to know. This has something to do with the content of your email and your recipient. Stalk them if you want but in the right way. That way, you’ll be able to adjust your tone of voice according to their content. Here are also some things that you’ll want to keep in mind: Warning number 1: Avoid guessing. Don’t think whether the recipient is a she or a he. Warning number 2: Don’t ever address them with, “Dear webmaster.” As much as possible, take the time to personalize your pitch. Try to call the person by their name, bring up some personalized stuff that will catch their attention, or congratulate them on a job well done. Introduce yourself, but make the introduction short and sweet. Then, the next thing that you need to do is to get to your main point. Sometimes, it’s quite practical to develop a short topic or overview of what you’re planning to write and how readers will benefit from it. Finally, don’t forget to say thank you, as well. Keep your emails short, direct to the point, and credible at the same time. Write A Killer Content Back then, 400-500 words of generic content are already enough for an average guest post. As long as the link is there, the content’s quality didn’t seem to matter that much. No wonder many would opt to buy guest posts instead of crafting high-quality content. But the thing is, it’s not the approach that we use now- it’s the exact opposite. Although not perfect, Google’s algorithm is getting better at determining quality content. If you wanted to project the best possible representation of your brand, the content you put out there should be the best representation of you. Assuming that you’ve followed the abovementioned tips, your content should rank well and drive referral traffic to your website. And this referral traffic can become your loyal readers and potential clients. Nonetheless, you should make a great impression as
